Build a Niche Store - A Users Review

Build A Niche Store is a software program which allows you to have live eBay auctions on your website all branded with your eBay affiliate I.D. eBay has 28,926 categories and growing, so the potential for profit is vast. The percentage ebay pays its affiliates ranges between 40% and 65% and is accompanied by a healthy active member sign up bonus of between $12 and $22.

It's also important to note that you have much more flexibility than just eBay's 28,926 categories. By creating custom searches, navigation and landing pages you can open up eBay's products in any way you choose. The Build A Niche Store Manual (which you receive on purchase) explores how to do these things and their value in more depth.

You will need a MYSQL Database to implement this software, so check with your server or host before you buy. If you have no experience with MYSQL don't worry, the Build A Niche Store manual walks you through this step by step with very clear screenshots and directions. When launched, Build A Niche Store was only able to use the U.S eBay site so it was fairly limited in worldwide application, but as of Christmas 2006 the programmers sent out a U.K version,with more countries in the pipeline. The first thing you need for any website is a domain name...you will also need a hosting account and of course you'll need to be registered as an eBay.com or eBay.co.uk affiliate...If you're starting out from scratch then you might also want to become a Google adSense publisher.

eBay run their affiliate program through their affiliate tracker Commission Junction. Commission Junction (CJ) handle all of the tracking and payments you generate from your Build A Niche Stores. Inside your CJ account you will be able to track exactly how many people you have sent though to eBay, how many people have bought a product, signed up as an eBay member, your conversion rate of clicks to buyers and how much you have earned on each sale...(you can even find out what products have been bought from your Build A Niche Stores).

The Build A Niche Store user manual is fairly straightforward, which guides you through the first steps of setting up a store, depending on your experience with PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) you should have a Build A Niche Store site up and running within an hour or two (quicker with practice!). The supplied templates are a bit basic, but with a bit of manipulation and photo editing, you can have a very personalised Build a Niche Store. You can also integrate your store into an existing website and match the layout with a bit of application.

The customer support is very good (as it should be) and if you do run into problems make sure to ask for help on the Build A Niche Store forum, the longest I have waited for an answer is half an hour, with the majority of questions replied to in well under that.

In conclusion, if you are expert in HTML or a webmaster (same thing more or less..) then Build a Niche Store is probably not for you, if however, you are new to website building then Build A Niche Store will save you much frustration and allow you to take advantage of eBays generous affiliate program to the full.